AI market round up: BlackRock makes big push into fixed income

Asset manager BlackRock is absorbing $1.5 billion credit manager R3 Capital Management. R3 was founded by former Lehman Brothers executive Rick Rieder. The beleaguered investment bank also sold about $5 billion in assets to R3 to manage last summer in return for a stake that it was later forced to sell under bankruptcy proceedings. In a letter to investors, BlackRock senior management stressed the importance of having the right employees and resources in order to take advantage of increased opportunities in mortgages and structured assets that are trading at distressed levels. The firm also hired Akiva Dickstein from Merrill Lynch to head its mortgage portfolio team and Randy Robertson from Wachovia to co-head its securitized assets team.